Working with text boxes

- A text box is a placeholder similar to the onesyou've been typing in all this time.You can add your own text boxes and re-size them,change the font, and manipulate them any way you like.Let's put some text boxes on these slides.I'll click insert from the ribbon tab and choose text box.I can click anywhere on my slideand a new text box is created.I can simply start typing on my keyboardto populate it with text.Now that it's created,I can move it anywhere I want on my slide.

You'll notice it's completely transparentso I can put it anywhere and it will look great.I can also click and drag to select the text.From here, I can change the text propertiessuch as making it bold-faced, making it bigger,smaller, I can even click the format taband apply WordArt styles and text effects to it.Once it's done I'm going to move it around on the slideby clicking and draggingand getting it all aligned where I would like it to be.

It's not at the right angle.I'd like to line it up with this shadowso I'm going to click on the curved arrowand when I do that, I can actually tilt the text box.From here, I can use the up, down,left, and right keys on my keyboard to nudge it into place.Now it looks like it was meant to be there.I'd like to put another text box on the slide.Rather than do it all over again,I'm going to hit the control key on my keyboardplus the D key.

This is going to duplicate a text box.I can only do this if I want to use a text boxon the same slide.Now I have a completely different text boxthat I can slide around, put somewhere different,and change it and nudge it how I need tojust so that it fits perfectly.I can alter the text,but the nice thing is,it retains all the properties of the other text boxso if I worked particularly hardon making a lot of font changes, those will still apply.

Now we do have two more matching rooms hereand the duplicate item will only workfor that particular slide.We can however, copy a text box.I'll select my text box, right-click on it,and choose copy.From here, I'll come over to another slide,right-click and select paste.I'm going to choose the destination themeand it's going to dump the text box right back in.Now I can nudge it again, get it all set up where I want to,and change the text slightly to suit my needs.

I can go through each slide and put my text box on it.Let's go to another slide.Here's our executive team.We've made the slideso that it looks wonderfully professional,however, I would love to put the names of the employeeson the slide also.I'll click insert, text box, and this time,instead of clicking to start typing,I can draw the boundaries of the text box.I can change it after and I'll show you how,but for now I'm going to populate it with some text.

Now that it's created,I can grow the text box and shrink it.The text changes accordingly.I can also change the text size,for example I'll bold-face it and make it much smaller.Now I can drag it anywhere on the screen.I'm going to duplicate this and do it a few more times.Now that they're all done, I can move them in place.Because Jennifer's shirt is very light colored,I can even have the text box overlapping it.I can do some more neat effectsto make it look like it's built-in to the picture.

For example, I can nudge this one over a little bitand highlight just a few letters of textand make them easier to read.Now it looks like it was done intentionallyand it looks amazingly professional.

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Released

9/22/2015

Learn how to best create, edit, and share presentations with PowerPoint 2016, the popular presentation platform. Jess Stratton shows how to build a slideshow from scratch or leverage PowerPoint templates and themes for quick construction. Jess then demonstrates how to add and edit text, images, graphs, video, and animation; format slides for consistency; and add speaker notes and transitions to ensure a smooth delivery. Plus, discover how to collaborate on changes and then share the final presentation via print, PDF, or a recorded slideshow.